Stanley Clarke - Bass In Your Face

Our guest in this month’s column was
referred to as a legend by age 25 years
old. He is also a noted music composer,
orchestrator, conductor and performer for
such films as Boyz n the Hood, What’s
Love Got to Do with It, Passenger 57 and
Poetic Justice to name a few. He has been
quoted as saying, “Film has given me the
opportunity to compose large orchestral
scores and to compose music not normally
associated with myself.” Sony has even
released a CD entitled Stanley Clarke at
the Movies which showcases his true
diversity as a musician.

In the 1970s he redefined and reshaped
the way bass players approached their
instruments. He took Larry Graham’s (Sly
and the Family Stone) slap-funk technique
and pushed it to the next level. He’s one
of the renowned members of the progressive
jazz fusion band Return to Forever
with Chick Corea. He is also the inventor
of the piccolo bass and tenor bass. I had
the pleasure of speaking with Stanley and
asking him about the Larry Graham song,
“Hair”, which he covered with Joe Satriani
on the Guitar Masters, Vol. 1 compilation.

He shared the story of how he stumbled
upon that particular song. “I think it was
before they even recorded it. I was standing
in a club in San Francisco with Carlos
Santana. Carlos had on this trench coat
with all these tape recorders underneath
his coat – he’s a real fan of music and
loved to make recordings of live shows.
He said, ‘Man, you have to check out
Graham Central Station.’ It was in this
little club. I knew Larry with Sly and
thought he was an amazing bass player.
When I heard ‘Hair,’ I said ‘Oh, Shit!’” So
as a homage to Larry, he recorded the
song with Joe Satriani.

Stanley has a home studio where he does
most of his solo projects for albums and
film/television scoring. For the recording of
“Hair,” Stanley told me that he used his
famous Alembic basses and F2 preamps.
He recorded using two SWR amps and
cabinets. One cabinet had 2x15” speakers
and the other cabinet housed 4x10” speakers.
He then mic’d each cabinet separately
and took a direct signal out of the amps
themselves. This gave him the flexibility to
blend during mixdown.

Stanley recorded using the Fairlight hard
disc recorder, which at the time was
similar to ProTools. Interestingly enough,
he used an analog mixer to monitor and
EQ the signal. During mixdown, his engineers
still liked having something physical
to work with and used the analog
board. When mixing on digital hardware,
such as ProTools, many old school engineers
like the feel of actual faders underneath
their fingers to control the mix and
utilize the onboard EQs. I have a vintage
Trident 32x16 console and the EQs are
so musical I want to be able to physically
turn the frequency knobs to affect the
tracks. It also allows me to bus certain
tracks and use vintage outboard effects
processors, like the Eventide H3000 and
the Lexicon PCM70.

As far as outboard gear, Stanley told me
he is a fan of the Fairchild limiter, which
he used on his first four solo albums. But
with the new technology of today, there
is a current Fairchild plug-in that Stanley
feels gets 95% of the sound of the original
hardware. He explained that because
of the Alembic’s wide dynamic range you
need a really nice limiter to control the
sound when recording. This also affects
Stanley’s choice of mics; when choosing
a mic, he considers not only the source,
but the room ambience too. For instance,
when he wants a really big bass sound,
he uses an outside studio. In the past,
he’s used studios that housed separate
rooms for each instrument, and he really
likes the feel and sound of each instrument
being physically separated.

With his new release, The Toys of Men he
discussed the present state, or rather the
lack of instrumental music on the radio,
saying, “The airplay thing is really tough
– there is really nothing out there. I do have
some faith in satellite radio. They have so
many more possibilities and programs. All
of my friends who have XM are musicians
and are into the technology. As for the
average guy, satellite radio just needs to
figure out how to reach them and build up
their listenership. Not until cars come with
satellite-ready radio will it catch on.”

It was a rare pleasure getting tips from the
man who revolutionized the sound of the
bass. I can only look forward to what lies
ahead for this ever-evolving artist. For more
on Stanley, visit stanleyclarke.com.

Brian Tarquin
Emmy Award Winning Guitarist Brian Tarquin scored a Top 20 hit in the
90’s with “The Best of Acid Jazz, vol. 2” on Instinct Records and enjoyed
several top 10 hits on the R&R charts. Founder of the rock/electronica
band, Asphalt Jungle and has scored TV music for such shows as, CSI,
Smallville, MTV, Alias, 24, All My Children and many others.

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